Ducks' Foligno carries message from home

Current Ducks assistant Mike Foligno holds up a sabre in Buffalo after being honored by his former team. Foligno, who has two sons playing professional hockey as well as two daughters, says he thinks about his wife Janis, who died of breast cancer in 2009, almost every day.DAVID DUPREY, ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANAHEIM – Scars are cut below both eyes, separated by a smashed nose that, in a fit of pure symmetry, also is as bent as a hockey stick.

This face fought its way through the NHL, and it shows. Every stitch. Through 1,075 games, dodging fists one shift, exploding in goal-scoring delight the next. Thriving on tough mixed with talent, old-school ice hockey straight from the 1980s.

Fought for 15 seasons the face did, through stops in Detroit, Buffalo and then Toronto, classic winter homes where they celebrate scars and the sacrifices and gashes that forged them.

But now the face is as still as granite, its carved animation frozen, as Mike Foligno ponders this question: Have you lived a day yet without thinking of his late wife?

"No, it hasn't happened," he says. "I don't think it ever will, either. I don't want to ever forget her. You can't erase memories. You can create new ones, but you can't erase memories."

This hardened man, who wrestled, head-butted and bloodied opponents, who scored 370 NHL goals when he wasn't serving his sentence of 2,234 penalty minutes – That's more than 37 hours in the box, folks! – pauses. The face, already expressionless, doesn't change.

"This disease has no eyes," the face's owner says. "It doesn't care who you are."

Mike Foligno is in his first season as a Ducks assistant coach. He arrived here with a message he'd like to share.

But first, let's give his message context, wrap it in meaning, so the message can be better remembered.

They met in high school, and how classic is that? In the town of Sudbury, in Ontario. Their first date was a dance, of course. Mike picked up Janis. In his '68 Mustang. Old school, we told you.

She was athletic, with a pretty smile. He was just starting his career in the sport that would define so much of their life together. And from that day, well, that was pretty much it. Other than those first few months of Mike's time in the NHL, these two were a couple.

They wouldn't marry, though, until they were absolutely, hand-to-God sure. It was Mike's third year in the league. He was with the Red Wings and proposed in a revolving restaurant atop the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit.

Sitting along the windows, Mike revolving backward and Janis forward, he slyly placed the ring on a stationary ledge, figuring that in 10 minutes or so, it would right next to Janis. He also made sure their table would be facing Canada when she discovered the surprise.

They were laughing and drinking wine and small talking and drinking more wine and ... Oh, crap, it's been more than 10 minutes! Where's the ring? Holy jeez! The ring!

Mike told Janis to reach back and grab the little box on the window sill now a few feet behind her. And do it quickly.

"If I had waited 10 more minutes," he says today, smiling, "I would have had to marry someone sitting at the next table."

It was during their first year of marriage that Janis – her turn to surprise – handed Mike an envelope. He opened it to find ticket stubs, dozens of ripped stubs each with short notes written on the back. Big fight tonight, read one. Two goals and an assist, read another.

They were from four years earlier, Mike's final season in juniors, playing for the hometown Sudbury Wolves. A season in which he would score 65 goals and 150 points, convincing the Red Wings to use the third overall pick in the 1979 draft on him.

Janis attended every Wolves' home game that season and, so smitten was she by her man in the No. 17 sweater, that she had concluded each night with a brief recap of Mike's performance.

"At that point," he says, smiling again, "I think she had bigger plans than I did."

Current Ducks assistant Mike Foligno holds up a sabre in Buffalo after being honored by his former team. Foligno, who has two sons playing professional hockey as well as two daughters, says he thinks about his wife Janis, who died of breast cancer in 2009, almost every day. DAVID DUPREY, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Janis Foligno, wife of Ducks assistant coach Mike Foligno, died in July of 2009 from breast cancer. NOTHERNLIFE.CA
The Foligno family presented a $35,000 check to the Sudbury (Ontario) Regional Hospital Foundation's Breast Cancer Equipment Fund on behalf of the Janis Foligno Foundation. From left: Mike, Nick, Marcus and Lisa Foligno. LAUREL MYERS, NORTHERNLIFE.CA
Current Ducks assistant Mike Foligno was the former captain of the Buffalo Sabres and was inducted into the team's hall of fame. Son Marcus was taken in the 2009 draft by the Sabres. GETTY IMAGES
Ottawa Senators forward Nick Foligno, left, played for the Sudbury Wolves when his father Mike was the coach. Mike Foligno, now a Ducks assistant, will be coaching against his son next month with the Ducks play in Ottawa. FRANK GUNN, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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